Gracie Abrams on How Songwriting Is ‘Like Breathing,’ Touring With Friend Olivia Rodrigo and Making New Music With Aaron Dessner
variety.comEllise Shafer Standing onstage at the El Rey Theatre in March, Gracie Abrams seemed genuinely shocked at the turnout for the first of two hometown shows in Los Angeles on her “This Is What It Feels Like” tour.
She blushed and stumbled over her words, rattling off a list of thank-yous and interacting with fans in side conversations, as if she weren’t one of the fastest-rising singer-songwriters in her generation playing a sold-out show.Abrams started that performance full of nerves, she tells Variety in a Zoom call from Long Pond Studios in upstate New York, where she is currently working on new music with Aaron Dessner, guitarist of the National (and, over the last couple of years, a primary Taylor Swift collaborator).
But once she felt the energy of the room, it all melted away. “I felt extra shocked by everything, just because there are nerves that inevitably come with playing at home, especially when you know more people at the show than you normally would,” the 22-year-old says. “That is a factor that typically triggers my anxiety.
But to feel in awe of the people that were there made my anxiety disappear completely, and I just felt so engaged with everyone that was in front of me.”Two of the people at the El Rey that night were Abrams’ parents, director J.J.
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